Death is Never Final
by darkazureskies
Summary: Summery: Naruto is MIA, Sakura is in morning, and Sasuke has returned. When people thought to be dead return, how will the hidden leaf village react? Better yet, what will happen?
1. Chapter 1

**RL: Ok, this is my first Naruto fan fic. The plot bunnies have been attacking me to write this. Damn them… OW, ow, ow, ow, ow… sorry, master plot bunny…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own **_**Naruto**_**. If I did, Naruto and Hinata would have confessed their love for each other LONG ago.**

**Summery: Naruto is MIA, Sakura is in morning, and Sasuke has returned. When people thought to be dead return, how will the hidden leaf village react? Better yet, what will happen?**

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Ch. 1. The Return

A pink haired teen stood by a small grave, which had a black forehead protector on it. The teen was crying softly and held a few yellow daffodils in her hands. She bent down and placed the flowers gently on the grave. The teen was so out of it that she didn't notice that there was another person behind her. It was a woman. When the woman spoke, the teen jumped.

"Sakura," the woman said in a kind and worried tone. Sakura quickly whipped her eyes and turned to face the women.

"Tsunade-sama, what are you doing here?" Sakura asked.

"Looking for you. I have something that I need to show you."

"You do?" The Godaime nodded.

"Just follow me," Tsunade said as she walked away.

Sakura, before following her sensei, turned back to the grave, kissed her pointer and middle finger, and placed those fingers on the name of the grave. "I miss you," she whispered softly.

"Sakura, hurry up," Tsunade called back.

"Hai, I'm coming Tsunade-sama." With one look back, she run up to the Hokage.

The fallen leaves blew around the spot where Sakura had just been. Crossing over the name on the gravestone. The name read _Uzumaki Naruto_.

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The two medic nins were walking through Konoha in silence. After several minutes, Sakura asked, "Where are we going?"

"Well, where does it look like we're going?" Tsunade asked in return. Sakura looked around to see what part of the village they were in and then looked in the direction that they were walking. A few hundred yards ahead was the hospital.

"The hospital. Why are we heading towards the hospital?" Sakura asked in confusion.

"You'll find out when we get there," was all Tsunade said.

"You're being very secretive lately."

"And you're being emo-ish." Tsunade replied looking at her student. "But you don't see me complaining about it."

For the rest of their walk, the two women stayed silent. When they arrived at the hospital, Tsunade lead Sakura down many passage ways until they met with a dead end. "Tsunade-sama, I think you might have taken a wrong turn somewhere," Sakura said as she saw the wall.

Tsunade didn't reply. All she did was stand there for a few seconds. Sakura was about to speak up again when Tsunade suddenly made several hand movements and her right hand glowed with a purple charka. She then slammed that hand flat against the wall, and the wall seemed to evaporate. Hen the wall fully disappeared, there was yet another hallway, except this one was different from the others. It had only one door, which was all the way at the end.

"Um, Tsunade-sama," Sakura started but couldn't finish as her teacher started to walk down the hallway.

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A teen sat in his hospital bed, musing over many thoughts. _Okay, I killed the snake bastard, along with four eyes. I couldn't find my goddamn brother, so I decided to head towards the village. And what do I get when I return? A party? No. I get beaten to a pulp by several ANBU units. I'm just glad Tsunade got there before I actually decided to fight back. Did the ANBU not find it strange that I wasn't fighting back? Probably not… _The teen swept his hand through his raven black hair, and sighed. He was about to go back to his musing when he heard two voices down the hallway.

"So, are you going to tell me why you brought me here?" one voice said. The teen thought the voice sounded vaguely familiar.

"I will," a second voice started, which the teen recanized to be Tsunade's, "once you tell me why you've been acting emo-ish."

"I have not!"

"You've been to his grave everyday, and you're always depressed."

"Same could be said for you."

"I-I do not visit his grave everyday. I'm always in my office doing paperwork."

"Okay, one; since when do you do paper work? And two; you genjutsus suck when you're drunk."

"Whatever."

"Oh, by the way, we're just going to visit one of you're old friends."

"Okay," the person said sharply, "if that baka's in there, and you've kept this from me for awhile, I'm gonna kick your ass, even if you are the freakin' Hokage!"

"Aha," Tsunade said slyly, to slyly the teen thought, "but the question is, what baka?"

"Nani? What do you-Oh you've got to be kidding me? You know what baka I'm talking about."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, Sakura," _Sakura? _The teen thought. "but that's not the baka I'm talking about." By now, the two were outside the door.

"Then who?"

"You're just going to have to find out, aren't you?"

"I hate this side of you, you know that?"

"I could tell. Now get in there." Tsunade pushed Sakura a little towards the door. Sakura glared at her sensei for a second before she hesitantly went to grab the door handle. She slowly slid it open and gasped. Emerald eyes met onyx eyes.

"Sasuke?!"

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**RL: -insert evil laughter here- Beware the evil cliffies! Did u enjoy it? If so, go press the button at the corner and review. And don't worry you Naruto fan girls, Naruto will be in this story, just not for like 5 chapters. That could be a stretch though. –puts arms in front of face- DON'T KILL MEH! And futue chapters will be longer.**


	2. Chapter 2

RL: HAHA

**RL: HAHA! Chapter two!**

**Naruto: Um… how is that good?**

**RL: You, baka, go! You're not in this yet!**

**Naruto: Fine, fine… -stalks off-**

**RL: So, Disclaimer: I do not own **_**Naruto.**_** –goes to grab bag of Ramen- -bag is not there- Naruto, you ass, get back here!**

Naruto's voice: That's what you for being such a bitch!

**Sakura: -sees RL run by chasing Naruto- I'm not gonna ask…**

_**Last time:**_

_**Emerald eyes met onyx eyes.**_

"_**Sasuke?!"**_

**Death is Never Final**

Ch. 2. Truths

Sasuke looked up and stared at his old teammate. _She's…changed…_ "Sakura?" He didn't get a response though, because Sakura slowly turned her head towards Tsunade with a look of totally pissed off-ness.

"Could you have, um, I don't know, told me before you shoved me in here!?" Tsunade only smiled at her student.

"I could have sworn I gave you enough information to guess," the blonde Hokage stood against the door frame, still beaming.

"I hate this side of you…"

"So I've been told." Tsunade then looked up at the clock on the wall. "He's lat-" She was interrupted when the window opened and on the sill sat Kakashi. "You're late, Kakashi." Sasuke turned to look at the Copy Nin, and as he expected, nothing changed about him.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head as his one visible eye turned into a smile. "I have a very good reason as in why I'm late."

"Like you always do, sensei?" Sakura inquired.

"Yes, I do. I was heading here and I ran into Konohamaru. He wanted to show me his new 'trick'." At this Sakura stiffened. "Oh, so you encountered it, too, Sakura?" Sakura's face turned a brilliant shade of pink as she turned her head to the left, away from everyone. "Then you'd love this." Sakura turned back around, her face returned to normal. Kakashi was reaching into his breast pocket on his vest. Tsunade sighed and sat in the chair that was positioned next to Sasuke's bed.

"Tsunade...sama…?" he managed the 'sama' with some difficulty. Tsunade shook her head and merely said, "Just watch." And that he did.

Kakashi proceeded to pull out something from the pocket. He smiled again. "This!" In his hand was the newest porno book out there, "Make-Out Tactics" in all of its porny glory. The vain on Sakura's temple was very visible at the moment. She looked over at the Hokage with pleading eyes. "You have to fix anything you break, human or home," was all the Godaime said to her student. Hearing this, Kakashi visibly shook.

Sakura cracked her fists, and slipped on her pair of gloves. A gulp was heard in the direction of the Copy Nin. The medic smirked. "This is what you get for being a pervert!" Sakura charged at her sensei.

"Ah, well, look at the time. I gotta go!" Kakashi was gone seconds before Sakura's fist connected with the wall where he was just standing, leaving a good sized crater.

"GET BACK HERE!" Sakura yelled as she followed him in hot pursuit.

Sasuke, to say the least, was shocked. He looked at the crumbling hole where Sakura had just punched and gulped. "This is why we try not to anger her," Tsunade said, monotone, but with a smirk. Sasuke looked at the Godaime.

"I'm guessing you taught her…"

"Everything I know." There was a heavy silence that followed. Sasuke sat there, thinking about something and Tsunade had a pretty good guess as to what the question he was bound to ask was about. Sasuke looked around the room and then back at the woman besides him.

"Wait, something's off here…" Tsunade sighed inwardly, she hated always being right. "Tsunade," The blonde almost chuckled; he had already forgotten about the 'sama', but this was Sasuke we're talking about. "Where's the do- I mean Naruto?"

Tsunade was shocked. Sure, she knew he was going to ask about the baka, but she didn't think he would catch himself when he addressed Naruto as a dobe. She sighed, dropping her head for a second then lifting it back up. Her eyes were brimmed with tears, Sasuke noted. "Truth is; nobody knows where he is. We don't even know if he's alive." (A/N: Was gonna end it there, but I felt like adding more.)

Sasuke eyes widened to the size of saucers. _He's… missing…?_ "H-How?" the Uchiha stuttered out. _Maybe I'm in some sort of dream… Yeah, that's it. Its gotta be. Naruto's too stubborn to die… or go missing for that matter. What happened?_

"We don't know." Tsunade stood up and leaned against the end of his bed, facing away from the teen. "Team Kakashi, along with Team Gai, were both coming home from separate missions and met up halfway back to the village. When both teams were only a few villages over, about a day away from returning, they were ambushed by a large group of rouge ninja.

"Sometime during the battle, Naruto became separated from everyone else. Nobody noticed until they had finished fighting that he was missing. The two teams then felt a tremendous explosion nearly half a kilometer away. Upon reaching the site, there was a massive crater, nearly twelve feet in diameter. All shrubbery was incinerated and there were several large pools of blood in and around the crater. There were no traces of any chakra signatures and even Neji couldn't find anything within his range. But the thing that made all of their stomachs churn was that in the dead center of the crater was a headband, Naruto's headband, in a massive pool of blood. That was two months ago."

The Hokage was shaking, for she truly did not want to remember any of this. She had seen the crater and the blood, for the teams dared not to disturb the scene. Tsunade fingered the crystal around her neck. It was also in the blood; its chain broken, but she didn't feel the need to tell the Uchiha. Composing herself, she resumed her Hokage duty. She faced Sasuke and said sternly, "You shall be released as soon as Sakura is finished killing Kakashi. She will escort you home and I expect you in my office at eight sharp for you punishment of betraying the village. For tonight, you're free."

With that said, Tsunade walked out the door, closed and leaned against it. She sighed. There was a frustrated growl that came from the room. She gazed in and saw the teen near tears, and killing his pillow. _So, he never truly cut his ties with Naruto that night. He still thinks of Naruto as his friend. Maybe even more… _The blonde Hokage then thought of something and opened Sasuke's door again, making the teen jump and quickly wipe his eyes. "We made a grave. It's on the furthest right side, towards the back. Can't miss it," She smiled warmly as she closed the door. She kept the smile as she heard the teen utter a 'thank you'.

She walked down the hall, again fingering the 'Crystal of Death'. She stopped at a window that gave full view of the Hokage Monument. The medic sighed._ You know, I was actually thrilled to think that I'd be able to see your face up there next to mine and all the others. Your dream would have been achieved seeing as Kakashi didn't take my offer of being the Rokudaime. Naruto, you'd better not be dead, or a lot of people will continue to grieve. _ Her thought were interrupted when she heard the shouting of both her student and the Copy Nin outside. _A LOT of people._ She sighed as she jumped out the window to break out the two outside.

**RL: Ok, I was listening to **_**Grief and Sorrow**_** and **_**Hokage's Funeral**_**, both by Toshiro Masuda, while writing the second half of the chapter. So, I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. And if you wondering, -holds up Ramen bag- yes I got this back. –points to Naruto, who is tied to a tree- He's over there for you fangirls if you want him. Well, this is RikuLuvr, signing out. –poofs away-**

**Naruto: -struggling- WAIT A MINUTE! GET BACK HERE!!**


End file.
